Tuesday, 22 September 2015

Spencer Cartwright who is the current and 4 times National
Champion in the Optimist Dinghy class has now won the Bahamas Junior Sunfish
National Championship for his first time. Pushing hard and in the mix for top
honors was Cochise Burrows. Such close racing made for a very suspenseful and
exciting series. In the end Spencer beat Cochise by three points.

Melisha Higgins and Katelyn Cambridge (Harbour Island) #3957 coming out of the start in race #1.

Winds throughout the weekend were light to moderate and
fairly shifty from the west, which made for fun and interesting sailing. When
taking the lead in any of the races it was extremely hard to keep it.
Positions, particularly in the last race constantly changed. One might say it
was all about luck but in reality it was very much a game of patience,
“heads-up sailing” and outthinking the opponents in this twenty boat fleet.

Cochise Burrows (#197) leading the race with Spencer Cartwright (#3941) right behind him.

Thirteen sailors form Harbour Island and one form Long
Island participated and sailed extremely well. Paloma Cartwright from Long
Island was fifth overall and received honors as the Top Female.

Sailors racing were ages 12 to 17, with an average age of 14.
Almost all of them learnt to sail in the Optimist Dinghy class and have now
been sailing a few years. As Coach Dunkley put it, “ It is impressive to see how
well the youngsters from Harbour Island and Long Island are sailing. It is obvious
their sailing schools and clubs do a tremendous job in teaching them. So while
we congratulate the youngsters for their outstanding performance I would also
like to congratulate the organizers andcoaches in these communities – The Higgins family in Harbour Island,
especially Melvin Higgins who coaches the kids a number of days each week and
the Cartwright families, especially Zoe and Mellisa in Long Island, who do the
same. It is always a pleasure to have them sailing here with us”.

Daisy Tinkler receiving her Silver Place 1st place trophy.

Due to the number of competitors and not enough boats we ran
with a round-robin format on the first day which determined who sailed in the
Gold Fleet (top half) and Silver Fleet (bottom half) on the second day. Trophy
winners were; in Gold Fleet, first place Spencer Cartwright (Nassau), second
place Cochise Burrows (Nassau), third place Conner Pinder (Nassau); overall Top
Female Paloma Cartwright (Long Island); Silver Fleet, first place Daisy Tinkler
(Nassau), second place Madison Martinborough (Nassau) and third place Joshua
Higgins/Collen Woods (Harbour Island).

Congratulations to all the sailors and a special thank you
to the Nassau Yacht Club for hosting this event and again to the Bahamas
National Sailing School sponsors Bahamas Hot Mix, East Nassau Rotary, KPMG,
Bahamas Ferries, Royal Bank, Coca Cola, Odyssey Aviation, Cable Bahamas &
Cable Cares, Kerzner Corp., Ministry of Sports, Ministry of Education and
Ministry of Agriculture.

All the sailors with Robert Dunkley and Donico Brown on left and Donnie Martinborough on right